The Advance Masonic Temple at 21-14 30th Avenue has housed a lodge since 1916 and became home to the combined Advance, Island City, and Mizpah branch in 1993.
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A building that opens with a fair tells you something about the people who built it. The Advance Masonic Temple opened in April 1916 with a week of festivities: a forty-piece band, Boy Scouts steering visitors up from the Manhattan ferry, and so many electric bulbs that a reporter for the Brooklyn Daily Times called the place an electric palace.
More than a century later it is still a lodge building at 21-14 30th Avenue in Astoria, and it is the house of Advance Service Mizpah Lodge No. 586.
Why Advance Lodge Built a Temple
Advance Lodge No. 635 had put up with rented rooms for forty-nine years. The last of them, at 165 Fulton Avenue, now Astoria Boulevard near Main Street, sat over a tavern whose landlord, in 1901, told the trustees that the sooner the lodge left the better he would like it.
By then the membership was growing fast, from 97 Master Masons in 1900 to 377 in 1916, and a lodge that size wanted rooms it controlled.
The plans suggest the lodge also wanted a building that earned its keep and served more than the lodge. A 1912 newspaper description called for a banquet hall on the first floor with a stage, and in July 1914 the Times said the new building would have a large hall for balls, receptions, entertainments, and public meetings.
A December 1914 account added a third floor for rental. The Eagle called the opening fair the first gathering of any kind in the new temple.
Astoria in the 1910s
The temple went up on Grand Avenue, the street that is now 30th Avenue, about a hundred feet east of Van Alst Avenue, which is now 21st Street.
The lot was bought in 1909 and 1910 from the Rapalye estate for $4,000 and was 40 by 143 feet.
A newspaper description of the neighborhood in 1923 gives a sense of it. Along the street stood houses thirty and forty years old, the temple, the home of the Exempt Firemen’s Association, and a Knights of Columbus clubhouse.
Within a block stood a Methodist church, an Episcopal church, and Our Lady of Mount Carmel with its lyceum hall. The Grand Avenue elevated station was four blocks off, and Van Alst Avenue, a hundred feet wide, was planned as the main street of the district.
What the Plans Said, and What the Lodge Says Now
The temple’s design changed on paper several times, and the newspapers did not agree with one another.
In July 1912 the Times described a brick building of two and a half stories, with an artistic but dignified front, a first-floor hall sixty-five feet long with a stage, and a lodge room of about sixty feet on the second floor.
In November 1914 a building notice gave two stories of brick, 34 by 100 feet, at $15,000. A month later the Times described three stories with an ornamental entrance with columns, an auditorium on the first floor, the lodge room and club rooms on the second, and rental space on the third, at more than $25,000.
In November 1915, at the cornerstone, the Eagle described two stories of brick and stone, 36 by 93 feet, for Masonic use only, at $18,000.
The building as finished has three stories, matching the December 1914 description.
The architects were Wenige and Nelson. Arthur Wenige was a civil engineer and assistant engineer in the Queens Borough President’s office in 1906, and he lived in Woodhaven.
He had been raised in Advance Lodge but left it to become a charter member of Hillside Lodge No. 894. He had already designed a temple for Hillside, and the lodge’s history says the interior of the Advance temple closely resembled it. Nelson appears in the sources only by surname.
Columns, Carvings, and Gifts
The three-story red-brick building still has the ornamental entrance the 1914 plans described.
A January 2023 article in Give Me Astoria describes two tall white columns flanking a portico entrance, with a broken pediment over the door and the words MASONIC TEMPLE carved beneath it. Carved lions and larger cattle skulls ornament the tops of the columns.
To the left of the entrance, a limestone cornerstone shows the square and compasses around the letter G, with the dates 1867 and 1915 and the lodge’s original name and number, No. 635 F&AM.
The same article reports a recent renovation, with the lion heads and skulls repainted in blue and gold, a black-and-white tile floor at the door, and new carved wooden doors.
The lodge describes the style as Beaux-Arts and Classical Revival and the interior as having stained-glass windows and a custom-built lodge room. Those interior and stylistic descriptions come from the lodge, which confirms they are accurate.
Some of the stonework and fittings can be traced to named members. The lodge history credits the Stockton brothers and Archibald Munro with cutting and fitting the limestone of the facade and porch, David V. Morrison with the stone columns of the entrance porch, and William R. Ross with the copper ventilating louvers in the west wall of the lodge room.
Henry L. Matheson installed the electrical outlets for the Lesser Lights, the three candles of the lodge room. J. Harry Adler built the letter G for the lodge room from hundreds of pieces of stained glass. The altar was the work of the father of Henry O. Grieshaber.
The history presents these as gifts, which is a good way to build a lodge on a budget. James Prowse’s contribution of the cornerstone belongs to the same record of members furnishing their new home.
Fair Week, 1916
The opening was planned as a week of fairs, and the Times announced that delegations from more than two hundred lodges were expected.
On Easter Monday, April 24, 1916, between four and five hundred people gathered for the opening exercises, which William T. Blunt, then Master, directed. Borough President Connolly spoke, and Dr. J. J. Kindred pressed a button to turn on the lights in the big hall, which made the fair official.
The Times described the rest with relish. Each booth was dressed as a flower arbor, with tiny electric bulbs set in the hearts of paper flowers and a large illuminated Masonic emblem hung overhead.
Visitors went from the upper hall down to the big ballroom through an Oriental room, where a cabaret and exhibition dances were going on. Capt. Joseph Isota led the forty-piece band, and Boy Scouts met delegations at the ferry and the car lines.
Every night of the week had an owner. Tuesday belonged to the Eastern Star, Wednesday to all the fraternities, Thursday to Master Masons from across the borough, with Grand Master Freifeld due from Brooklyn, Friday to the home folks, and Saturday to the Knights Templar.
The Craftsmen’s Club of the lodge sponsored the fair, with help from the newly organized Advance Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star, and, according to the Times, from Island City Chapter. The lodge’s history says the fair netted over $3,800.
The building committee’s final report in September 1916 put the cost of the building, with extras and the architect’s fee, at $17,905.15, and the fittings and furniture at $3,157.77.
Everything was paid, with a balance left over, which the lodge turned into a fund to retire its bonds. Newspapers in April had given the cost as $25,000 and $26,000.
Townsend Scudder dedicated the temple on November 14, 1916, by authority of Grand Master Thomas C. Penny.
The First Years
The lodge’s history says the trustees lent the temple to the Red Cross and other relief groups during the war.
On Sunday, November 23, 1919, the lodge held a service in the building to honor its members who had served and to take down its service flag. Grand Secretary Robert Judson Kenworthy gave the oration.
The bronze Roll of Honor, cast afterward, went up on the temple wall. The building had been open for three years.
A Lodge Building Shared
The temple did not remain a meeting place for Advance alone. Astoria Lodge No. 963, which began in 1919, and King David Lodge No. 994, which followed in 1921 or 1922, both started with Advance’s approval.
Newspapers from the late 1920s and 1930s show King David meeting in the building and calling it the Astoria Masonic Temple.
In March 1926 a reception for the district deputy grand master drew more than five hundred Masons, too many for the building, and the party moved to Moose Hall at Broadway and 11th Avenue.
By October 1936 a Times Union notice put the lodge at 21-14 30th Avenue, which means Grand Avenue had been renamed by then.
The building also served the neighborhood. In January 1955 the Astoria Property Owners Association met in it to plan opposition to a slum-clearance plan. In 1961 the Queens Masonic War Veterans Post held its annual election there.
The Order of the Eastern Star’s Advance Chapter held a family dinner in March 1981, for $3.50 for adults and $1.75 for children. Notices from 1987 and 1988 list a card party and an Eastern Star country fair.
The building’s present use is its own part of the story. In 1993, Island City Mizpah Lodge consolidated with Advance Lodge and moved into the temple. In 2018, Service City Geba Lodge joined the same lodge to form Advance Service Mizpah Lodge No. 586.
The Merger History follows the consolidations that brought the six predecessor lodges into one.
Give Me Astoria described an extensive renovation under way in January 2023. The lodge says it rents its event spaces to the public and has taken part in Open House New York.
The Advance Masonic Temple, Still in Use
The sources do not explain why this building lasted when others in the lineage passed into different uses. Its plans do show a building intended for more than meetings of the fraternity that paid for it, with a banquet hall, a stage, and rooms that other bodies could borrow.
The membership that built it was willing to buy bonds, to drive a Cadillac from house to house selling them, and to give an altar, a cornerstone, and a stained-glass letter G.
Island City’s temple went to the federal government, and Mizpah’s went to a church. Advance’s is still a lodge building, and it still has the lodge in it.
Sources and Notes
Lodge History
- The History of Advance Lodge No. 635 (date to be confirmed), including the building committee’s accounts, gifts to the temple, opening fair, dedication, and wartime use.
Newspapers
- Brooklyn Daily Times, July 22, 1914; December 4, 1914; April 21, 22, and 25, 1916; and other April 1916 coverage.
- Brooklyn Eagle, November 28, 1914; November 21, 1915; April 25, 1916.
- Times Union, March 11, 1923; October 18, 1936.
- Daily News notices, 1955–1988.
[Before publication: add the precise reference for the July 1912 plans and replace broad newspaper ranges with the specific dates, titles, and pages actually used.]
Modern Description and Lodge-Supplied Information
- Barry Ward, “Astoria’s Advance Masonic Temple Takes Old Building to Next Level,” Give Me Astoria, January 27, 2023.
- The lodge’s description of the temple, including its architectural style, interior, event rentals, and participation in Open House New York.
[Before publication: add the exact source or attribution for the lodge-supplied descriptions and confirm present-day uses.]
Note 1: Dates, Names, and Figures
The temple was planned as three stories in December 1914, two and a half in July 1912, or two in November 1914 and November 1915. The 1914 papers place it variously on Grand Avenue near Van Alst Avenue and at the corner of Hopkins and Grand Avenues.
The Eagle gives a lot of 45 by 146 feet, while the 1909–1910 purchase was a lot of 40 by 143 feet.
Cost estimates run from $15,000 to $36,000. The building committee’s final report gives $17,905.15 for the building and $3,157.77 for fittings.
The dedication date of November 14, 1916, comes from a passage in the lodge history whose transcription is garbled. The fair’s net proceeds of over $3,800 come from another garbled passage. Both should be checked against the original.
The architect’s surname appears as Wenige, Weinige, and Wenge. Wenige is the spelling used in this series.
Give Me Astoria dates the building to 1930. The construction and opening record used here establishes 1915–1916 instead.
Advance Lodge’s charter date is July 2, 1867, following the Grand Lodge chronology used for this project.
The old hall at Main Street and Fulton Avenue was in Astoria, then part of Long Island City. Fulton Avenue is now Astoria Boulevard, and the corner is where Main Street meets Astoria Boulevard at the top of 22nd Street.
The sources place King David Lodge’s beginnings in 1921 or 1922. This article does not resolve that difference.
Consolidations are given by year throughout the series. The 1993 consolidation brought the Advance, Island City, and Mizpah branch into the temple. The final consolidation brought the full six-lodge lineage together in 2018.
Some earlier drafts contained claims found in none of the sources, including that the temple was one of the first buildings in the area with electric power and that Ethel Merman performed in its hall. Those claims are omitted.
Start Here · Series Hub · Timeline · Previous Article: Advance Cornerstone · Next Article: USS Advance · Related Directory: Advance Members · Related Member Profiles: Wenige, Prowse
Related Reading
- Advance Lodge No. 635: Astoria’s First Masonic Lodge
- Advance Lodge No. 635 and the Laying of Its Cornerstone
- Arthur E. Wenige and the Architecture of the Temple
- Island City Lodge No. 586 and the Temple That Served the City
- Mizpah Lodge No. 738 and Its Elmhurst Temple
- The Merger History of Advance Service Mizpah Lodge No. 586
- Series Hub: Advance Service Mizpah Lodge No. 586
